Mr. Wiltshire arrived the next morning with two people Kristi didn't recognize. Kristi, Tamera Chris and Jonathan met them at the force field. As they approached it, the could see the crowd on the other side looking in.
"Hi, nice to see you again Max!" said Kristi through the force field looking at Mr. Wiltshire. "Okay boys, go right ahead." Chris and Jonathan held hands and together teleported the three inside the force field. It shocked the people watching outside the force field.
"What the hell!" said Max disoriented. He looked around at the children around him. "Sorry." he said meekly.
"Now will you introduce me?" asked Kristi looking at the people behind him.
"Sorry Kristi. This is Cheryl Mannon, the reporter from CNN and her camera man, Mark Ward." said Max introducing his companions. One by one they shook hands.
"If you come this way, you'll have a little tour and then you can ask all the questions you like." said Kristi smiling.
They walked into the mansion. It was built much like Xavier's mansion except with a few minor exceptions here and there. Kristi had built a room and also dubbed it the Danger Room. Yet, her protegee's being kids only use the low settings that it was capable of. The one big difference between Xavier's School and Kristi's school was that they didn't have a hangar or a plane of their own use. Kristi thought that it might attract too much attention if she did. Dustin helped her set up a powerful computer for her own usage in the basement of the manor that no one knew about, not even her students. Kristi dubbed it Colin, because it was finished the day Kielle told her that Colin was born. Her computer became like a friend, it had a mind of it's own and could think problems out to it's full capacity. Most of all, Colin talked with other computers around the world gathering interesting information about everyone and everything.
They started in the Danger Room, "This is the Danger Room. It is capable of 3D simulations and safeties are a must at this time... yet as my students mature they can be taken off and the simulations can become quite real. The problem with this, is that it can inflict real pain and injury, therefore only I have the password." After a couple of demonstrations, performed by Chris and Jonathan they left the room. The camera man was taking pictures of everything that she stopped to talk about. After the tour, she had shown them almost every part of the house except the basement. They entered a conference room on the main floor usually used for lectures.
"Do you have any questions?" asked Kristi.
"Yeah, you better sit down, because this is going to take a long time!" sighed Cheryl motioning to her camera man to turn on his camera. "First off, how did you get the kind of money to build a place like this?"
"It came out of private funds." said Kristi.
"Who's funds? It looks like billions of dollars have been "donated" to you for your state of the art school." asked Max.
"Mr. Wiltshire, I'm sure you know!!! After all, you are the representative of NATO and you love sticking your nose into other people's business!" said Kristi looking shocked. "If I must tell you. I'm sure you know my friends Dustin and Crystal. They have been seen with me on several occasions. They are my benefactors."
"Where did you get this technology!!!" screamed Max, because she was deliberately avoiding the subject. Kristi was very good at avoiding the subject!
"Turn off the camera." demanded Kristi.
"The public has a right to know!" protested Cheryl.
Kristi had no patience and sent a energy shock wave that destroyed the camera. They all sat stunned.
"You are a..." stammered Max.
"I, my dear friend, control all Fay magic." said Kristi carefully. "I am what is left of the Fay after humans all but destroyed them and vampires wanted to control them."
"You mean, that you have powers like these kids that you "found" everywhere in the world!" said Cheryl awed and pissed off that she had destroyed her camera. This would of got her an award or something!
"I got my technology from what you would call comic books characters. I'm sure you have heard of them Max, you talk about them every day. I know that you are an X-men fan, so was I, until I met them by accident." smiled Kristi.
"You MET the X-men!!!" shouted Max in astonishment.
"Yes, I met them... but that's beside the point... you know about Cable, he lived 1000 years in his future. I got the technology from him. Does that answer your question. Oh, if that counts as an alien, then yes, I have been associating with aliens." said Kristi.
"What about the rumors of your little club?" asked Cheryl. She was just throwing words into the air, after all, she was asking this on a faint rumor... people that have told her about this didn't live long enough to tell their tales.
"My club consists of me, Crystal, Dustin, Crystal's husband and three other people from an other reality. Their names are Kielle, Angel, and their son Colin. I have to say this up front that this is very unusual, but these three are what you would call the undead." said Kristi seriously. Cheryl gave Kristi the 'I don't understand' look. "A vampire, nitwit!" Kristi rolled her eyes at Cheryl's stupidity. "Oh, I almost forgot... Max, I've been meaning to tell you something. I'm sure you would love to meet my husband, he goes by the name Eric in public but... his real name is.... Remy." Max's eyes started to bulge.
He had finally discovered what had bugged him so much about her husband. At first, he thought that he was developing feelings for her and her husband was getting in the way...but something kept nagging... She had one of the X-man's last name and all, but never in his wildest dreams did he think that his all time hero was living and had been in the same room as him on several occasions. He had seen pictures of him in comic books, but they didn't do him justice.
"Your husband.... is an..... X-man...." started Max faintly. A wave of dizziness swept over him and he sat down on a chair not too far from where he was standing.
"I think we will have a recess now. Go look around yourselves, we will meet back here in two hours." said Tamera stepping in for Kristi as she herself sat down, waiting for Max to recover so he could ask her his questions. Cheryl and Mark nodded their heads and headed off.
*
Remy waited in the McDonalds for five minutes. He was at least twenty minutes ahead of everyone else and had nothing to do. All of a sudden, he had a marvelous idea! It was something he couldn't do before because he hadn't had the power. Remy stepped into the back alley and teleported his ex-wife in front of him.
Belladonna was a very beautiful women, especially when she was mad. This meant that she was the most beautiful girl in the world, for she was royally pissed off!!!
"Lebeau!" she hissed. "Je vais te tuer!" Yet, as she advanced to throttle him, she found that she couldn't move.
"Ma chere, souvenir." whispered Remy softly. Remy harnessed Kristi's power and made Belladonna remember. She had no idea what was going on, until memories from deep in her sub-conscious started coming up about what it was like before he had given her the elixer of life at their wedding. After full realization, deep sorrow filled her eyes.
"J'ai une autre femme, elle s'appelle Kristi. Je l'aime plus que mon vie. Souvenir, et vivre avec ta vie comme tu veut." whispered Remy. All his last regrets were now over. He could now live his life to the fullest and love without remorse. A tear was going down her cheek as Remy teleported her back to where he had found her.
Remy left the alley and was walking back to the McDonalds when a hand came over his mouth and before he knew it, his world was blacking out. The men that had knocked him out, through him into the same van that Colin and Darien were in and drove off to the airport.
*
Crystal and Dustin met up with Kielle and Angel at McDonalds. It was then that all havoc broke loose. Crystal told her tale of how Darien disappeared and that prompted Angel to look for Colin. He wasn't there either. Not to mention that Remy hadn't shown up!
"Where's Colin?" shouted Kielle softly, urgently, to her group.
"Wasn't he with you?" asked Crystal.
"Everyone calm down!" yelled Dustin so loud that the whole place heard him. Everyone in the Highlanders shut up, because this was totally out of characteristic for Dustin.
"Darien, Colin, Remy and Scott is missing!!! We have to look for them. Yet, we can't talk here, let's go to Kielle's place where it's safe to talk and then figure out what to do." said Dustin much softer than before so only his friends would hear it.
*
Scott never did get to the wedding. As he was being teleported someone intercepted him and drew him back to Earth. He didn't know it until it was too late. He appeared in a building that looked like the inside of a castle dungeon. A bright light shone down on him and to his surprise, he had head gear on preventing him from using his ocular blasts.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" screamed Scott.
"After all this time. I now again have you, Slim." said the voice. A chill ran up his spine. He recognized that voice... from his past... his past that he would rather forget if he could.
"Sinister, how did you manage this?" he gasped out as a searing pain went through his head.
"It pays to have connections and people of different talents working for you for free." he said with an amused tone. "Inspiring fear into the hearts of people if what I do best! Remember your childhood?"
Scott tried to stand up and lash out with his arms, but his hands and feet were shackled to the floor.
"That's adamantium holding you there Slim. There is absolutely no chance to escape the prison I built for you and your friends. Oh, I must be going. Business meetings; what a boring past time!" said the voice as it faded out into the background.
*
Everyone went to Kielle and Angel's home and sat down to discuss what they could do.
"Whoever touched my son, will not be alive once I find him." growled Angel as he cracked his fingers to Dustin's displeasure.
"We need help." muttered Dustin.
"Good idea!" shouted Crystal. "Who should we call? The X-men are a possibility, I'm sure they would want to be notified."
"What about Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, and her husband, the android.... um, Vision!" asked Dustin.
"How do you know about them?" asked Crystal puzzled.
"Hey, give me a break. I read SOME comics as a youth!" retorted Dustin.
"No, not them. But... I'm sure if we ask around like... the fantastic four, or Cable... or someone that knows him, they might help!" said Kielle.
Crystal was already on top of them, trying to find them with her powers. After a good fifteen minutes, she became exasperated.
"No one is here!" she cried. "I can't even find anyone! Not Cable, not any of the X-men, not even Darien, Remy, Scott or Colin. It's like they are all blocked to me."
Kielle and Dustin tried to contact everyone as well and for some reason it didn't work. After supper, Crystal decided to go check out the X-manor to see if anyone was there and if she could, eat some of Jubilee's jellybeans which she knew were under her bed. She left without telling anyone.
Any comments? Like to see something happen in particular? Send ideas to yorkd@ibm.net...